William Lee

William "Billy" Lee (1750-1828) was the personal servant of General George Washington, accompanying him from his days at his Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia until his 1799 death, upon which he gave Lee his freedom.

Biography
William Lee was born in 1750, and on 3 May 1768 he was purchased as a slave by George Washington. William kept his old owner's last name of Lee, and he became Washington's butler and manservant. Throughout the eight years of the American Revolutionary War, Lee served at his master's side, including the winter at Valley Forge (during which he had to struggle with Washington's case of melancholia, which made him have outbursts and visions) and the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. Lee was injured many times while surveying with Washington, giving him physical disabilities; his nephew Christopher Sheels became the new body servant of Washington in 1790. In 1799, he was the only one of Washington's 124 slaves to be freed on Washington's death, and the other slaves would be freed in 1802 on Martha Washington's death. Lee was given a pension of $30 a year for the rest of his life, which he spent at Mount Vernon until his death at the age of 78 in 1828.